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MEADVILLE  THEOLOGICAL  SCHOOL 

QUARTERLY  BULLETIN 


VOLUME   IV  JULY,  1910  NO.  4 


l/U 


H  \AJj\oJL 


■JLrz* 


PRESIDENT'S  REPORT. 
COMMENCEMENT  WEEK. 
CLASS  SONG. 
,  IN  MEMORIAM— GEORGE  LOVELL  CARY     v 

CADIN  BALLOU  LECTURE.  ) 

Rev.  Joseph  N.  Pakder  ^/ 

INSTITUTE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION. 


Entered  as  Second-class  Matter  December  15,  1906,  at  the 

Post  Office  at  Meadville,  Pa.,  under  the  Act 

of  Congress  of  July  16,  1894, 


XXSRAJTY   of  the 

^Massachusetts 

JUL19  1910 

-A-gricmltural 
C^Ilegir 


PUBLISHED     BY     THE     MEADVILLE     THEOLOGICAL     SCHOOL 

MEADVILLE,  PA. 


THE  MINISTRY  IN  RURAL  COMMUNITIES. 
By  J.  N.  Pardee. 

Dr.  Thomas  Nixon  Carver,  Professor  of  Economics  in  Har- 
vard University,  and  President  of  the  New  England  Country 
Church  Association,  approaching  the  subject  from  the  view-point 
of  an  economist,  assumes  that  if  the  country  districts  are  to  be- 
come Christian,  it  will  be  because  Christians  are  the  best  farmers. 
"Therefore  it  behooves  the  rural  churches  to  see  to  it  that  their 
members  are  made  better  farmers  by  the  fact  of  membership." 
Agreeing  with  him  perfectly,  I  assume  that  the  important  work 
of  the  country  minister  lies  in  making  the  population  Christian; 
and,  if  the  country  is  to  become  pagan,  because  pagans  are  the 
best  farmers,  it  will  be  because  of  a  lack  of  Christian  ministers  of 
the  right  kind.  But,  one  of  the  most  hopeful  features  of  the 
interest  in  rural  progress  is  the  newly  awakened  concern  in 
nearly  all  of  our  theological  schools ;  their  readiness  to  co-operate 
with  the  agricultural  colleges,  and  with  all  other  helpful  forces, 
and  their  appeal  to  the  heroism  of  their  young  men  to  turn  their 
attention  countryward  and  train  themselves  for  service  in  neg- 
lected fields.  (As  large  opportunities  for  self-sacrifice  exist  in 
America,  as  in  India  or  China.)  This  matter  should  appeal  also 
to  the  practical  mind,  for,  as  half  of  our  population  lives  in  the 
country,  half  of  the  students  must  drift  to  the  country  or  go 
without  professional  employment. 

By  way  of  prelude,  it  may  be  said  that  the  things  that  count 
for  most  in  the  ministry,  in  country  and  in  city,  are  certain  inde- 
finable qualities  of  personality, — insight,  faith,  conviction  and 
consecration.  Training  and  equipment  are  of  value  as  tools; 
they  are  a  kind  of  art,  not  for  Art's  sake,  but  for  Life's  sake. 

The  minister  is  accepted  by  the  people  today,  not  so  much  for 
his  gown  and  bands,  or  the  way  he  buttons  his  collar;  not  so 
much  for  his  scholarship',  his  eloquence,  or  his  felicity  in  prayer, 
though  these  things  count,  as  for  his  manhood,  his  manners 
among  men,  his  ability  to  do  things,  and,  above  all,  for  his 
unselfishness  and  his  consecration  to  divine  and  human  ideals.  If 
there  is  a  growing  paganism  in  the  country,  which  I  doubt,  the 
country  pagan  wants  the  minister  to  be  a  Christian,  in  the 
broadest  and  most  practical  sense  of  the  term,. 

Now  we  are  receiving  a  good  deal  of  advice  about  the  train- 

15 


ing  of  ministers  for  the  rural  ministry,  with  Jean  Frederick 
Oberlin  held  up  as  an  ideal.  But  the  relation  of  the  minister  to 
an  agricultural  population  has  undergone  many  changes  since 
earlier  times.  European  agriculture  srrew  out  of  the  monasteries, 
and  the  monks  were  the  teachers  and  pioneers.  Oberlin  found 
conditions  in  the  Ban  de  la  Roche  desperate,  and  he  revolution- 
ized them.  The  Puritan  parsons  of  New  England  were  leaders 
in  the  tillage  of  the  soil;  but,  in  our  day  of  specialization,  other 
leaders  and  other  forces  have  taken  the  leadership.  We  need 
Oberlin's  sagacity,  pluck,  patience,  persistence,  endurance,  tact 
and  sympathy,  and  his  liberality,  but  there  is  less  call  for  us  to 
do  the  kind  of  work  Oberlin  did. 

The  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment  stations,  the  Depart- 
ments of  Agriculture,  state  and  national,  are  in  close  touch  with 
the  farms.  Farmers'  Institutes  are  multiplying;  Granges  are 
active;  a  very  able  agricultural  press  sends  its  publications  into 
almost  every  rural  household;  the  "Good  Roads"  movement  is 
everywhere  a  live  issue ;  the  study  of  agriculture  in  the  public 
schools  is  spreading ;  co-operation  is  growing ;  farmers  pay  taxes 
for  public  schools  willingly,  and  are  calling  for  the  best  teachers. 
If  there  is  any  place  where  Oberlins  are  needed,  it  is  in  the  South, 
where  Rev.  W.  S.  Key  is  doing  such  a  work;  but  of  the  South 
I  know  too  little  to  speak  with  authority. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  institutional  church  is  practicable,  if 
it  is  desirable,  in  most  country  districts,  at  least  under  present 
conditions.  It  is  better  to  draw  a  pretty  clear  line  between  the 
interests  of  the  church  and  the  interests  of  the  town,  and  to  take 
up  each  kind  of  work  independently  of  every  other  kind.  Let 
each  interest  have  its  own  special  organization.  But  we  do  need 
somebody  to  lead  in  such  work  as  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  doing  in 
athletics,  lectures,  classes,  and  in  directing  the  energies  of  the 
young  into  wholesome  channels.  The  man  who'  is  fitted  for  this 
work  will  find  enough  to'  do. 

In  many  of  our  rural  communities  the  minister  is  often  the 
only  educated  man  of  leisure,  the  only  man  competent  to  lead; 
and  in  such  cases  the  more  he  really  knows  about  all  sorts  of 
things,  the  better  it  is  for  the  community,  if  he  has  tact  enough 
to  use  what  he  knows  in  practical  and  judicious  ways. 

The  actual  conditions  call  for  educated  men.  The  city  church 
can  get  along  with  eloquence,  manners,  style.  The  dilletante 
minister  may  find  a  place  in  some  city  pulpit,  but  the  country 
demands  men  who  know  something.  The  country  minister  ought 
to  be  reasonably  well  read  in  the  sciences,  and  know  how  to 
think,  and  know  how  to  meet  men ;  and  all  this  I  say  without 
slighting  his  theological  training  and  his  Biblical  criticism.    He 

16 


ought  to  know  something  more  than  superficially  about  the  indus- 
try on  which  the  life  of  his  people  is  based.  Not  that  he  is  to  be 
a  teacher  of  agriculture,  or  rural  economics;  but  because  that 
knowledge  is  the  open  highway  to  a  profound  sympathy  with  the 
ideals,  the  struggles,  trials,  hopes  and  ambitions  of  the  people  to 
whom  he  ministers,  and  to  an  insight  into  their  mental  processes 
and  their  moral  tone.  This  is  the  foundation  theory  of  the 
Summer  School  for  Country  Clergymen  that  is  held  at  the  Agri- 
cultural College  of  Massachusetts,  at  Amherst.  And  for  this 
reason  a  course  at  an  Agricultural  College  is  an  extremely  valu- 
able supplement  to  a  theological  course. 

But  the  young  man  who  looks  countryward  for  his  field  should 
never  forget  that  the  primary  work  of  the  Christian  minister,  in 
the  country  as  well  as  in  the  city,  is  to  call  the  attention  of  men, 
women  and  children  to  the  Eternal  Realities ;  to  translate  the 
terms  of  a  sane,  vital  philosophy  of  the  Universe  into  the  terms  of 
the  common  thought  and  life;  ;to  find  in  high  thoughts  of  the 
moral  government  of  God  motives  for  the  conduct  of  human 
beings  in  their  relations  to  one  another;  to  stimulate  high  ambi- 
tions, clarify  thought,  widen  knowledge,  give  hope  in  discourage- 
ment, and  soothe  the  sorrows  of  the  afflicted.  To  enable  him  to 
do  this  in  the  most  effective  way,  all  is  fish  that  comes  to  his  net ; 
but  how  far  he  shall  go  to  fish  in  other  than  religious  waters 
depends  upon  the  circumstances  of  his  environment,  and  the 
character  of  his  tackle. 

I  would  not  put  too  much  emphasis  upon  an  all-round  equip- 
ment, however.  Some  of  our  most  successful,  most  inspiring, 
most  helpful  country  ministers,  who  have  moulded  the  character 
of  rising  generations  have  been  saintly  men  who  knew  nothing 
about  common  affairs,  and  could  handle  no  tool  heavier  than  a 
pen ;  but  they  were  men  who  knew  much  about  the  deep  things 
of  God,  and  the  aspirations  of  the  human  soul ;  men  of  high 
scholarship,  profound  thought  and  of  spiritual  vision;  men  who 
loved  the  people  and  whom  the  people  loved. 

The  first  coign  of  vantage  the  minister  is  to  occupy  is  the 
pulpit.  It  is  here  that  the  candidate  is  "sized  up."  It  is  here 
that  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  measure  is  taken.  He  is  "called" 
almost  exclusively  upon  his  character  and  quality  as  a  preacher; 
and  the  keenest,  shrewdest  critics  he  will  ever  face  he  stands 
before  in  the  country  pulpits.  It  is  from  the  pulpit  that  he  wields 
his  greatest  influence.  Country  congregations,  as  a  rule,  will 
forgive  neglect  and  short-comings  in  all  other  departments  of 
his  work  sooner  than  failures  in  the  pulpit.  They  will  go  into 
their  pockets  far  deeper  for  a  good  preacher  than  for  a  good 
social  worker,  teacher  of  civics,  organizer  of  clubs,  or  even  for  a 

17 


good  pastor,  though  all  these  things  are  highly  appreciated. 
What  we  call  "worship"  or  devotional  service,  is,  often,  in  the 
rural  mind,  a  secondary  consideration ;  possibly  because  it  has 
been  neglected.  (For  this  reason  the  Episcopal  Church  has  not 
flourished  in  the  country.) 

I  want  to  make  this  point  clear  because  there  has  been,  and 
still  is,  an  impression  abroad  that  almost  any  kind  of  preaching 
will  "go"  in  the  country.  Poor  preaching  does  go;  many  cheap 
things  go  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  people  of  a  poor  church 
feel  their  inability  to  pay  for  anything  better;  but  the  man  who 
lets  himself  down  from  his  very  best,  through  a  vain  impression 
that  his  audience  does  not  know  a  good  thing  when  it  sees  it,  01 
hears  it,  be  he  preacher,  lecturer,  singer  or  entertainer,  makes 
the  mistake  of  his  life.  In  the  city  you  may  find  more  brilliant 
audiences,  more  cultivated  audiences,  because  in  the  city  you 
are  likely  to  have  picked  audiences ;  but  in  the  democracy  of  the 
country  the  stranger  who  looks  into  unemotional  faces,  reserved 
and  self-contained,  often  fails  to  appreciate  the  shrewd  intelli- 
gence, the  general  knowledge  of  men  and  affairs,  the  keen  ability 
to  detect  sophistry  in  reasoning,  that  actually  characterize  a  nor- 
mal country  congregation.  A|nd,  the  further  back  you  go  into 
pioneer  regions,  the  more  really  educated  men  and  women  are 
you  likely  to  meet,  though  they  may  not  be  regular  church 
goers. 

I  know  how  summer  visitors  bring  back  to  the  city  many 
stories  of  rural  stupidity ;  but  summer  visitors,  like  the  novelists, 
are  apt  to  generalize  from  incidental  cases,  and  to  look  through 
glasses  colored  by  their  own  abnormal  aestheticism.  I  have  my- 
self probably  preached  and  lectured  in  as  great  a  variety  of 
places — churches,  school  houses,  halls,  from  the  wild  woods  of 
Maine  to  the  prairies  of  Iowa, — as  any  man  of  my  age;  and  I 
have  yet  to  find  a  rural  audience  that  would  not  average  up  in 
general  intelligence,  and  breadth  of  information  to  the  "swell" 
clubs  I  sometimes  have  the  privilege  of  banqueting  with  in  the 
large  cities. 

The  rural  mind  is  essentially  a  serious  mind,  and  is  given  to 
thoughtful  reflection.  It  is  a  philosophical  mind.  The  natural 
environment,  the  call  to  deal  with  natural  phenomena  in  forest 
and  field  stimulates  the  imagination  to  trace  out  lines  of  cause 
and  effect.  You  never  hear  of  a  country  gathering  being  stam- 
peded by  fright,  or  of  its  rushing  out  of  doors  in  a  panic.  Let  the 
cry  of  fire  run  through  a  crowded  church,  and  the  men  will 
quietly  go  out  to  see  what  the  matter  is,  while  the  women  begin  to 
gather  up  the  hymn  books  and  the  cushions.  The  whole  training, 
from  that  of  the  baby  wandering  in  the  fields,  the  ten-year-old 

18 


going  off  alone  with  a  team,  to  the  management  of  a  farm, 
teaches  self-reliance.  Country  people  are  no  more  easily  stam- 
peded by  flaming  eloquence  or  burning  periods  of  rhetorical  pas- 
sion. 

Rural  industry  allows  time  for  thought,  even  to  the  making 
of  individual  theologies;  and  the  rural  theologian  is  quite  apt  to 
put  the  theologian  of  the  schools  upon  his  mettle.  May  the  good 
Lord  deliver  you  from  such  unequal  contests  of  wit ! 

In  the  country  one  finds  the  keenest  sense  of  humor,  though 
it  is  not  always  refined.  Rural  humor  is  born  of  the  habit  of 
tracing  the  lines  of  cause  and  effect;  and  is  therefore  quick  to 
see  the  ludicrous  side  of  abnormal  relations.  Possibly  for  this 
reason  rural  congregations  are  seldom  moved  by  what  is  known 
as  "sensational  preaching."  Religious  revivals  are  hard  to  start 
in  the  country ;  and,  when  they  are  started,  they  usually  do  more 
harm  than  good.  I  have  seen  a  great  many  of  them  in  the  old 
revivalistic,  camp  meeting  days,  and  have  noticed  that  the  writhing 
and  the  shouting  of  the  wrestlers  has  had  the  effect  of  exciting 
amusement,  if  not  scoffing,  on  the  part  of  the  greater  body  of 
lookers  on.  This  is  not  because  country  people  have  not  a  pro- 
found respect  for  religion,  but  because  the  rural  mind  is  essen- 
tially rationalistic.  It  is  its  habit  to  reason  things  out,  crude 
though  much  of  its  reasoning  may  be.  Country  juries  seldom 
render  illogical  verdicts. 

In  many  ways  the  average  country  audience  is  deceiving. 
Reserved  and  modest,  with  a  kindly  tolerance  for  crudities  and 
respect  for  good  intentions,  it  will  stifle  its  humor,  and  pass 
ridiculous  situations  by  without  a  smile  simply  on  account  of  a 
feeling  of  decency ;  and  the  deeper  the  impression  you  make,  the 
less  applause  will  you  be  likely  to  get. 

One  distinction  should  here  be  made ;  and  that  is  between 
intelligence  and  culture.  You  will  find  in  the  country  little  appre- 
ciation of  Art  for  Art's  sake.  What  is  it  good  for  is  the  question. 
Country  people  are  born  pragmatists.  Artists  came  to  our  town 
and  preached  aesthetics  without  effect.  But  when  we  proved 
that  beauty  increased  the  value  of  property,  the  people  took  hold 
and  cleaned  up  the  dooryards,  laid  cement  walks,  and  painted 
their  houses.  That  shrewd  observer,  Dr.  Carver,  once  said  to  me 
that,  if  he  were  training  men  for  city  pulpits,  he  would  put  his 
emphasis  first  upon  pleasing  manners,  secondly  upon  rhetoric 
and  voice  culture,  and  thirdly  upon  thought;  but,  if  he  were 
trniaing  them  for  the  country,  he  would  reverse  the  emphasis. 

The  lesson  of  all  this  for  the  preacher  is  to  be  as  thorough 
with  his  thought  as  he  can ;  as  direct  and  simple  with  his  state- 
ments, driving  straight  forward  to  the  heart  of  things  along  the 

19 


road  of  logical  common  sense.  Fancy  rhetoric  is  a  cumbrance; 
sounding  periods  put  hard-working  men  to  sleep ;  but  the  preach- 
ing that  takes  hold  on  life  furnishes  food  for  thought  and  lights 
up  dark  subjects  will  find  as  serious  response  in  any  congregation 
that  gathers  from  the  farms  and  forests  as  it  will  anywhere.  Still 
it  must  be  said  that  real  literary  finish  is  not  lost  on  rural  audi- 
ences ;  and  no  audiences  are  less  tolerant  of  anything  that  savors 
of  boorishness,  either  in  the  pulpit  or  out  of  it.  And  here  I 
might  say,  that  country  congregations  retain  a  great  respect  for 
the  Bible,  and  are  appreciative  of  Biblical  preaching;  and  espe- 
cially so  because  they  are  just  beginning  to  see  the  force  of  the 
higher  criticism.  The  higher  criticism  is  an  effective  antidote  to 
crude  rationalism.  And  when  you  go  to  the  country  to  preach, 
please  do  not  forget  to  read  the  hymns.  There  is  more  worship 
in  a  hymn  well  read  than  in  its  rendering,  or  rending  by  an 
average  country  choir.  Many  people  have  an  idea  that  country 
congregations  call  for  extemporaneous  preaching.  Once  that 
was  true  except  in  scholarly  New  England.  Now  a  man  is  ex- 
pected to  do  his  best  whichever  way  he  choose.  I  have  known 
one  man  who  wrote  satisfactory  sermons  to  lose  his  pulpit  be- 
cause he  insisted  on  preaching  extemporaneously,  and  he  could 
not  do  it. 

I  have  dwc:lt  upon  preaching  because  it  is  a  primary  matter ; 
but  I  would  not  have  the  inference  drawn  that  it  is  the  only 
thing  to  be  considered,  in  treating  the  place  which  the  minister 
holds  in  a  rural  community.  The  point  is  that,  if  a  man  can  not 
preach  acceptably,  he  had  better  not  seek  a  country  pulpit.  If  he 
can,  then  his  position  gives  him  standing,  and  his  opportunities 
for  usefulness  broaden  out,  and  he  finds  his  place  among  the 
affairs  of  the  community  according  to  his  ability  and  equipment. 
About  what  the  minister  can  do  for  civic  betterment,  I  can- 
not speak  very  definitely  as  this  is  such  a  personal  matter;  it 
depends  so  much  upon  circumstances  that  no  rule  can  be  laid 
down;  and  there  is  so  much  that  must  be  said  about  his  own 
special  place  and  office  that  time  forbids.  His  work  in  Sunday 
School,  and  with  guilds  and  auxiliary  societies  is  not  essentially 
different  from  the  same  work  in  city  churches.  There  is  little 
for  him  to  do  in  the  administration  of  charities.  The  country 
knows  little  of  real  poverty ;  and  the  poor  that  we  have  with  us 
are  taken  care  of  by  town  officers,  while  the  personal  touch  is 
given  by  a  kindly  neighborliness.  My  own  rule,  formulated  from 
experience  is:  Keep  an  eye  on  everything;  be  ready  for  emer- 
gencies ;  but  never  do  anything  that  anybody  else  can  do  as  well 
as  I  can. 

Most  writers  dwell  upon  the  close  relation  of  the  country 

20 


minister  to  his  people  in  the  pastoral  relation.    It  is  assumed  that 
the  country  pastor  comes  into  the  most  intimate  personal  rela- 
tions with  the  members  of  his     flock;     that    he     knows     their 
thoughts,  feelings,  pains  and  trials.     I  am  inclined  to  be  very 
doubtful  of  this ;  and  other  country  pastors,  with  whom  I  have 
talked  about  the  matter,   confirm  my   doubts.     Of  all  people, 
country  people  are  the  'hardest  to  become  really  acquainted  with. 
Rural  life  fosters  a  strong  individualism.  The  countryman  asserts 
his  own  opinions  freely,  and  is  ready  to  argue  with  the  minister ; 
but  when  he  comes  to  speaking  of  the  things  that  touch  him  most 
deeply,  especially  in  the  region  of  the  emotions,  he  is  shy  and 
reserved.     He  feels  his  inability  to  express  himself  in  words. 
Self-reliant,  the  countryman  keeps  his1  pains  and  troubles  to  him- 
self ;  or,  if  he  talks  of  them,  he  is  much  freer  with  his  neighbors 
than  with  his   minister.     Further  still,   his   self-dependent  life 
breeds  in  him  an  element  of  stoicism.    There  are  ministers  who 
have  the  faculty,  happy  or  otherwise,  of  probing  their  people,  or 
of  worming  out  confidences ;  but  the  country  pastor  with  human 
delicacy  probably  knows  as  little  of  the  troubles  of  his  people  as 
any  man  in  the  community,  and  hears  as  little  of  the  gossip  that 
is  going  about.     I  have  my  doubts  about  country  folks  having 
many   serious   troubles,   save   when   sickness   invades,   or  death 
blights  the  household.     Business  perplexities  are  rare.     Poverty 
is  little  known.    Vice  hides  itself  in  the  by-ways.    On  the  whole, 
life  is  normal  and  wholesome ;  people  are  too  busy  to  give  much 
attention  to  the  ills  of  the  flesh,  and  they  sleep  too  soundly  to  be 
troubled  much  by  the  ills  of  the  spirit.    Family  differences,  feuds 
between  neighbors,  personal  jealousies,  such  as  we  read  about 
in  novels  and  see  little  of,  the  wise  man  soon  concludes  to'  leave 
alone;  and  when  he  strikes  them  on  general  principles  in  his 
pulpit,  where  the  blow  is  apt  to  tell  most  strongly,  he  can  strike 
most  effectively  if  his  congregation  realizes  that  he  has  had  no 
personal  contact  with  them.    The  preacher  who  knows  too  much 
about  the  inner  lives  of  individuals  is  seriously  handicapped. 

The  country  minister  faces  peculiar  difficulties  and  dangers. 
Jesus  had  in  mind  conditions  essentially  rural  when  he  advised 
his  disciples  to  be  "As  wise  as  serpents  and  as  harmless  as  doves." 
Peculiar  difficulties  lie  in  the  strong  individualism  that  country 
industry,  isolation  and  self-reliance  foster.  Woe  to  the  minister 
that  attempts  to  assert  authority.  Even  Catholic  priests  have 
realized  this  resistant  quality  of  the  rural  mind.  In  the  manage- 
ment of  churches  this  individualism,  this  absence  of  respect  for 
authority,  this  lack  of  co-operative  spirit,  is  the  most  difficult 
condition  the  pastor  meets. 

In  the  city  church  the  minister  deals,  in  the  main,  with  trained 

21 


business  men.  Business  men  are  placed  upon  the  standing  com- 
mittees. The  trained  business  man  has  a  habit  of  putting  respon- 
sibility upon  subordinates,  and  of  respecting  the  authority  of  su- 
periors. He  looks  upon  the  minister  much  as  he  looks  upon  the 
head  of  some  department.  As  a  director  of  a  corporation,  he 
puts  large  powers  into  the  hands  of  the  President,  gives  him  a 
reasonably  free  hand,  and  looks  to  him  for  results.  He  does  the 
same  with  his  minister.  The  minister  is  the  head  of  the  corpora- 
tion. From  him  he  expects  results.  How  he  is  to  obtain  these 
results  is  the  minister's  business. 

In  the  working  of  a  church  corporation  in  the  country,  com- 
posed mainly  of  farmers  and  their  wives,  who  are  not  trained 
business  men,  though  shrewd  in  their  own  small  business  meth- 
ods, the  business  is  held  in  the  hands  of  the  corporation  as  a 
whole.    Every  member  wants  to  have  his  way  about  it;  and  the 
dominating  members  are  bound  to  have  things  their  own  way. 
Personalities  are  apt  to  clash.    Traditions  run  deep.    If  a  church 
is  well  organized,  it  is  likely  to  run  in  grooves  along  established 
lines ;  if  not,  it  is  likely  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  few  who  are 
jealous  of  interference.    The  curse  of  many  country  churches  is 
the    slip-shod,    unbusiness-like    methods    of    their    maintenance. 
More  country  ministers   fail,   and   lose   their   pulpits  on   these 
accounts  than  on  all  other  accounts.    They  are  apt  to  make  one 
of  two  mistakes.     The  first  is  the  mistake  of  holding  aloof  from 
the  business  affairs  of  the  church ;  the  other  is  of  interfering  with 
them  unwisely.     One  great  need  of  the  country  churches,  if  not 
the  greatest,  as  men  of  organizing  and  directing  ability.     I  see 
no  way  of  overcoming  the  inertia,  the  bad  management,  the  busi- 
ness failures  that  beset  many  of  our  country  churches,  but  the 
training  of  ministers  in  business  methods,  and  then  insisting  that 
the  minister  is  the  responsible  head  of  the  corporation. 

Here  I  ought  to  say  a  word  about  the  minister's  official  posi- 
tion.    Under  the  congregational  theory,  whatever  authority  the 
minister  has  is  derived  from  the  congregation ;  or  from  the  cor- 
poration.    But  in  the  absence  of  any  specific  rule  made  by  the 
corporation,  the  corporation  centers  in  him.    He  can  do  the  same 
things  that  the  corporation  can  do.    By  usage  and  custom  he  is 
given  control  of  the  pulpit,  and  other  business  is  put  into'  the 
hands  of  other  officers.     But  it  is  a  prerogative  of  bis  office  to' 
exercise  advisory  oversight  upon  the  other  officers,  and  to  call 
them  to  account  if  they  neglect  the  duties  of  their  offices.     In 
New  England  most  religious  societies  are  corporations.     Where 
they  are  not  incorporated,  the  title  to  property  and  the  business 
management  are  vested  in  boards  of  trustees.    These  boards  are 
responsible,  not  to  the  congregation,  but  to  the  state.     All  the 

22 


power  the  congregation  has  over  them  is  the  power  of  election. 
The  minister,  however,  is  not  beholden  to  the  trustees,  except  in 
the  matter  of  salary.  He  represents  the  congregation,  and  as  its 
official  head  properly  exercises  advisory  functions  with  the  trus- 
tees. Lawyers  tell  me  that  this  is  good  law,  as  well  as  good 
business.  I  cannot  go  into  this  matter  at  any  length,  but  minis- 
ters should  make  a  study  of  it  and  know  where  they  stand.  In 
most  cases  the  welfare  of  the  church  depends  upon  the  tactful 
way  in  which  the  minister  assumes  and  exercises  his  business 
function.  The  minister  w*ho  allows  himself  to  be  looked  upon 
merely  as  the  hired  man  in  the  pulpit  occupies  an  unstable  po- 
sition. 

All  churches  are  governed  by  the  laws  of  the  states.  They 
make  their  own  by-laws,  but  the  statutes  are  their  constitutions. 
It  is  surprising  to  find  the  great  number  of  ministers  and  standing 
committees  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  laws  under  which 
their  churches  exist.  I  know  a  number  of  old  churches,  pros- 
perous churches, — that  have  been  letting  things  run  at  loose  ends 
so  long  that  nobody  knows  where  they  stand  legally,  or  what  the 
title  to  their  property  is.  Judge  Davis,  of  the  Land  Court  oi 
Massachusetts  says,  "The  courts  of  this  Commonwealth  dread 
nothing  so  much  as  a  Church  Case."  And  yet  the  statutes  are 
plain  and  explicit,  and  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  from 
the  earliest  times  till  now,  have  been  uniform.  It  seems  to  me 
that  in  the  training  of  "ministers  for  the  country,  a  course  in  eccle- 
siastical law  would  be  as  valuable  as  a  course  at  an  agricultural 
college. 

Given  a  knowledge  of  the  law ;  given  a  working  idea  of  busi- 
ness methods,  one  word  can  cover  all  the  other  steps  necessary 
to  put  a  church  upon  a  good  working  basis.  That  word  is  "tact." 
Aside  from  the  difficulties  that  arise  from  imperfect  organization, 
great  troubles  sometimes  come  from  the  force  of  personalities. 
Churches  would  hardly  be  human  organisms  if  they  did  not 
contain  individuals  who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  authorities, 
dissatisfied  with  the  minister,  or  have  grievances  against  other 
members  of  the  church.  In  a  city  church  the  minister  usually 
draws  his  own  clientele  and  builds  up  his  own  machine.  In  the 
country  few  men  do  it.  In  the  city  the  popular  preacher  is 
superior  to  the  institution;  in  the  country  the  institution  is 
superior.  Of  all  institutions  the  country  church  has  the  most 
tenacious  hold.  In  the  city  disgruntled  worshippers  can  go  off 
to  some  other  church ;  in  the  country  they  hang  on  to  the  insti- 
tution and  stay  to  make  trouble.  What  is  the  minister  to  do  in 
such  cases? 

No  perfectly  satisfactory  rule  can  be  laid  down  that  even  the 

23 


most  angelic  minister  could  make  work  to  perfect  satisfaction; 
but,  judging  from  a  somewhat  wide  observation  and  experience, 
my  own  opinion  is  that  more  ministers  make  a  mistake  in  resign- 
ing than  in  sticking  to  their  posts  and  letting  the  other  fellows 
become  resigned.  The  fact  is  that  the  man  who  is  worth  having 
usually  has  a  big  majority  on  his  side;  and  the  man  who  counts 
up  his  majority  and  sticks,  who  appears  to  be  utterly  oblivious  to 
personal  dissatisfactions,  and  never  answers  back,  who  puts  his 
emphasis  upon  the  work  he  is  doing  for  God  and  humanity,  who 
looks  to  the  good  of  the  church  rather  than  to  his  own  peace  of 
mind,  lives  through  troublous  crises  and  wins  out.  Of  course, 
some  short  pastorates  are  evidences,  as  Beecher  said  at  Yale, 
of  "Divine  mercy  to  the  parishes."  More  are  evidences  of  hyper- 
sensitiveness,  squeamishness  or  bad  judgment,  if  not  of  ambition 
on  the  part  of  thin-skinned  ministers.  Here  it  is  proper  to  put 
in  a  word  of  general  warning.  The  literature  of  the  subject 
generally  lays  the  blame  for  short  pastorates,  and  the  numerous 
ills  from  which  they  spring,  to  the  psychology,  the  economics, 
the  "human  cussednness"  of  the  people  who  make  up  the  body  of 
our  congregations. 

But  this  is  a  one-sided  view  of  pastoral  responsibilities.  A 
good  many  elements  enter  into  it.  Sometimes  the  minister  is 
wholly  at  fault.  But  it  may  be  said  in  general  that  it  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  man  who  puts  on  the  armor  of  Christ  to'  win  victories. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  pastor  of  a  church  to  win  the  people.  It 
is  his  business  to  persuade  them,  lead  them.  However  intelligent 
they  may  be,  he  is  dealing  with  limited  minds,  childish  person- 
alities, ignorance,  diabolism  if  you  please.  He  is  a  foolish  man  if 
he  listens  to  all  their  little  criticisms.  Sometimes  it  may  be 
necessary  to  kindly,  sweetly,  gently,  shake  them  over  the  bleach- 
ing fumes  of  the  fumigating  pit ;  out  it  is  not  his  business  to  let 
them  go  to  the  Devil.  If  the  task  is  too  great  for  him,  it  simply 
proves  that  he  is  not  equal  to  the  task.  He  may  succeed  better  in 
some  other  place.  The  point  I  would  like  to  emphasize  is,  that  in 
a  country  town,  the  influence  which  a  minister  exerts,  both  in  and 
out  of  the  church,  the  good  he  does  and  the  reward  he  receives, 
are  almost  directly  in  proportion  to  his  staying  qualities.  To  look 
upon  a  country  church  as  a  good  place  to  develop  homiletic 
wings,  for  flights  to  some  metropolis,  strikes  me  as  a  kind  of 
criminal  cruelty;  or  ignorant  folly. 

Furthermore,  the  position  a  minister  holds  in  a  rural  com- 
munity (as  well  as  in  the  city  if  not  more  so)  the  influence  he 
exerts,  depends  less  upon  his  intellectual  ability,  less  upon  his 
equipment,  less  upon  his  popular  gifts,  his  scholarship  and  train- 
ing, though  all  of  these  have  their  high  values,  than  upon  a  quiet, 

24 


unconscious  acceptance  by  the  people.  It  is  a  bit  difficult  to  make 
this  important  point  clear,  and  I  shall  have  to  illustrate  it.  For 
example :  A  minister  goes  to  a  town  to  settle.  Everybody  goes 
to  church  once  at  least  to  hear  him.  He  is  the  latest  curiosity. 
He  is  pointed  out  as  he  passes  by.  Everybody  talks  about  him. 
He  is  invited  out  to  tea.  If  he  is  worth  being  proud  of,  the 
church  people  are  proud  of  him.  A  sense  of  proprietorship  is 
evident.  He  is  "our"  minister.  Perhaps  he  is  criticised.  Per- 
haps he  runs  across  the  grain  of  somebody  and  some  folks  get 
down  on  him.  Then  >his  champions  rise  up  and  fight  battles  for 
him.  So  time  runs  on  until  nobody  takes  any  special  notice  of 
him.  Congregations  settle  down  to  a  staid  average.  Nobody 
invites  him  to  tea,  unless  he  chances  to  come  around  at  tea  time, 
and  then  they  take  him  in  informally.  Things  run  along  like 
clock  work.  Then  he  begins  to  feel  that  his  work  is  done  in  that 
place  and  he  had  better  be  moving  on. 

It  may  take  six,  eight  or  ten  years  to  arrive  at  this  demoraliz- 
ing stage;  but,  if  the  minister  only  knew  it,  he  has  arrived  at  a 
stage  where  he  holds  a  secure  place,  and  where  his  real  power  is 
probably  greater  than  at  any  previous  point  in  his  career.  He 
has  been  accepted  by  the  people.  He  is  one  of  them;  one  of  the 
citizens.  His  machine  is  in  running  order.  Disgruntled  mem- 
bers have  disappeared.  Children  have  grown  up  from  the  Sun- 
day School,  and,  if  he  has  done  his  duty,  are  voting  members  of 
the  church  and  always  ready  to  stand  by  him.  The  danger  at 
this  point  is  that  he  will  not  wake  up  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
situation,  and  look  forward  to  still  greater  activity. 

Dr.  Charles  Carroll  Everett,  of  blessed  memory,  used  to 
quote  somebody  as  saying:  "A  minister  should  not  use  his  influ- 
ence until  he  has  got  it.  When  he  has  got  it,  he  should  not  fail 
to  use  it."  To  which  he  himself  added,  "The  way  to  get  it  is  to 
use  it."  In  applying  this  to  the  ministry  in  a  country  town,  to 
the  minister  as  a  man  among  men  and  a  citizen,  some  qualifica- 
tions are  needful. 

Our  country  towns  need,  above  all  things  else,  strong  leader- 
ship. The  country  has  no  lack  of  potential  efficiency.  Good 
workers  are  there,  if  well  directed ;  and,  once  agreed  upon  a  plan, 
they  work  with  little  friction.  Personal  rivalries  are  rare,  and 
desire  to  lead  is  seldom  evident.  But  leadership  calls  for  delicacy 
and  finesse.  Here  is  where  the  path  of  danger  lies  to  the  young 
minister  who  has  taken  courses  in  sociology,  studied  civic  ser- 
vice, dipped  into  social  settlement  work  and  has  a  passion  for 
organization;  and  especially  if  he  has  studied  rural  sociology  in 
books,  and  formulated  pet  theories  of  the  rural  uplift.  The  only 
leadership  that  will  attract  a  following  in  the  country  is  the  kind 

25 


that  can'  show  the  way  an  concrete  fashion.  The  rural  mind  is 
highly  concrete,  as  well  as  self-reliant.  The  only  teaching  that 
will  have  much  effect  is  teaching  by  the  object  method.  If  I 
wanted  to  teach  the  farmers  how  to  raise  better  potatoes,  and 
more  of  them,  I  would  say  nothing  about  it.  I  would  plant  a 
field  by  the  road  side,  and  do  the  talking  after  the  crop  was  dug. 
Not  having  a  field,  I  would  find  some  expert  who  has  made  good 
and  let  him  do>  the  talking. 

If  danger  lies  in  unwise  attempts  at  leadership,  success  often 
lies  in  a  method  of  leadership  that  stands  behind,  if  such  a 
Hibernicism  is  allowable,  and  sets  other  people  up  to  issue  the 
orders.  Remember  the  rule:  Keep  an  eye  on  everything;  but 
never  do  anything  yourself  that  anybody  else  can  do  as  well. 

If  I  do  not  know  how  to  do  something  that  needs  to'  be  done, 
there  is  somebody  somewhere  who  does  know ;  and  the  best  thing 
I  can  do  is  to  find  that  person  and  let  him  have  the  honor  of  doing 
it.  Often  you  need  not  go  far  to  find  him.  But  if  you  must  do 
a  thing  in  order  to  have  it  done,  be  mighty  sure  you  can  carry  it 
through  to  a  successful  termination.  Failures  in  the  country  are 
conspicuous ;  and  everybody  knows  why  you  failed,  and  country 
folks  have  long  memories.  Just  now  I  want  the  road  through  the 
village  oiled.  If  I  brought  the  matter  up  in  town  meeting,  it 
might  end  in  talk.  I  do  not  know  just  how  to  do  it;  but  the 
engineer  of  the  Highway  Commission  knows  how,  and  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Commission  has  offered  me  the  use  of  one  of  his 
men  to  show  me  how  to  do  it.  If  it  is  a  success  in  front  of  the 
parsonage,  it  will  go  through  the  village  speedily. 

A  great  deal  of  trouble  has  been  caused  in  country  towns  by 
the  desire  of  some  new  ministers  to  have  their  fingers  in  every 
pie,  and  to  pull  out  the  plums  for  the  glorification  of  their  own 
church.  This  officiousness  is  less  harmful  in  the  city,  because 
there  competition  is  intense  and  people  are  accustomed  to  have 
about  everything  done  for  them.  You  cannot  do  things  for 
country  people;  you  can  only  show  them  how  to  do  things  for 
themselves.  The  social  settlement  idea  can  not  be  made  to  work 
in  the  country,  if  it  is  the  least  bit  obvious.  Even  though  your 
motives  are  the  most  disinterested,  you  are  apt  to  run  up  against 
the  feeling  that  you  want  to  "run  things."  It  causes  a  great  deal 
of  friction,  and  with  most  people  it  leads  to  doing  nothing  for  the 
public  benefit.  A  great  deal  of  the  deadness  of  rural  communities 
is  owing  to  a  senseless  suspicion  of  the  man  who  seems  to  want 
to  be  boss. 

How  are  you  to  meet  this  feeling?  It  may  be  well  to  stop 
awhile  and  let  things  go  undone,  until  the  people  see  what  hap- 
pens when  you  hold  back.     But  if  you  must  do  things  in  order 

26 


to  have  them  done,  why,  do  them,  but  do  them  with  certainty. 
Count  your  majority.  The  majority  will  ultimately  be  with  you, 
if  you  have  common  sense  and  a  habit  of  making  good.  A 
reputation  for  knowing  what  you  are  about,  and  for  succeeding 
in  your  undertakings,  is  itself  a  magnet  to'  draw  support.  And 
when  you  have  gained  that  reputation,  your  field  of  usefulness, 
as  a  minister,  as  a  citizen,  as  a  man  among  men,  is  limited  only 
by  your  own  energy,  state  of  health,  ability  and  equipment. 
Every  rural  field  is  fertile  with  possibilities.  Resources  are  not 
exhausted,  they  remain  unworked.  The  greatest  need  I  have  in 
my  own  little  field  is  the  need  of  a  secretary  and  assistant.  I 
have  to  do  too  many  things  with  my  own  hands,  to  spend  too 
much  time  on  trivial  matters,  to  go  too  far  to  do  research  work. 

I  spoke  yesterday  about  the  turn  of  the  tide  countryward.  A 
very  hopeful  thing  for  the  coming  minister  is  the  attention  that 
is  being  given  by  all  denominations  to  the  matter  of  ministerial 
support.  The  cost  of  living  and  of  ministerial  efficiency  is  rela- 
tively higher  in  the  country  than  in  the  city.  Provisions  of  all 
kinds  cost  quite  as  much.  Fuel  is  quite  expensive.  A  horse  and 
carriage,  or  an  automobile,  is  essential.  The  minister  who  does 
not  travel  and  keep  in  touch  with  the  outside  world  is  in  danger 
of  drying  up.  There  are  ways,  however,  of  getting  books.  The 
farming  class  does  not  realize  the  situation  because  it  costs  the 
farmer  comparatively  little  to  live,  and  he  says  that  the  minister 
handles  as  much  money  as  he  does,  which  is  generally  true.  But 
other  bodies  are  taking  hold  of  the  matter. 

It  is  a  question  how  far  a  minister  ought  to  go  in  the  attempt 
to  eke  out  a  living  by  engaging  in  gainful  occupations  such  as 
cultivating  land,  etc.  As  a  rule  I  believe  it  to  be  a  mistake  for 
him  to  go  far  on  such  a  line.  The  success  of  even  a  small  church 
calls  for  all  his  best  powers,  steadily  employed.  The  harder  the 
field,  the  greater  the  labor ;  the  thinner  the  soil,  the  more  fertilizer 
is  needed,  But  I  have  this  conviction,  based  upon  experience 
and  wide  acquaintance,  that  the  young  man  who-  goes  to  a  country 
place,  with  an  adequate  equipment  of  brains,  energy,  common 
sense  and  consecration,  and  puts  his  life  into  his  work  with  no 
thought  of  how  he  is  to  live,  who  is  not  anxious  about  the  mor- 
row, but  seeks  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  will  have  the  things  he 
needs  added  to  him ;  and  in  the  end  his  balance  sheet  will  be 
quite  as  clean  as  that  of  the  man  who  begins  in  a  city  pulpit  with 
a  big  salary.  It  depends,  not  on  the  environment  at  all,  but  on 
his  own  personality.  I  know  men  who  have  served  a  church  and 
a  town,  and  actually  become  rich  in  small  country  parishes.  De- 
spite the  pathetic  stories  current,  the  fact  remains  that  country 
ministers  do  live  reasonably  well ;  do  keep  up  with  the  times ; 

27 


do  educate  their  children;  do  preserve  their  mental,  moral  and 
spiritual  poise.  Country  children  have  opportunities  for  securing 
the  means  of  education  that  many  a  city  child  lacks.  The  country 
boy  or  girl  is  far  less  dependent  upon  paternal  aid  than  the  city 
youth. 

How  country  ministers  do  come  out  ahead  would  make  some 
interesting  stories,  if  they  could  be  induced  to  print  them.  A 
good  deal  of  the  success  is  owing  to  cheerful  dispositions.  Woe 
to  the  minister  who  goes  about  with  a  lugubrious  face,  com- 
plaining of  his  treatment.  Mark  Tapley  would  succeed  better 
in  the  sacred  office.  A  saving  sense  of  humor  has  high  values  in 
ministerial  relationships.  When  you  come  to  think  of  it,  is  it 
not  ridiculous  for  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  of  joy  to'  worry  about 
the  price  of  beef  and  broadcloth?  If  my  parishioners  have  to 
eat  boiled  potatoes  and  home-made  chickens  on  account  of  a 
mythical  beef  trust,  I  can  eat  boiled  potatoes  and  home-made 
chickens.  I  can  wear  shabby  clothes  in  well-dressed  company  if 
my  parishioners  can  stand  it;  and  they  know  it.  As  a  fact 
shabby  ministers  make  them  ashamed.  I  can  stay  away  from 
conventions  if  they  see  no  reason  for  my  going,  and  they  know 
it.  Consequently  I  go.  It  would  utterly  discourage  them  if  I 
demanded  a  rise  in  salary  large  enough  to  buy  clothes  and  pay 
for  railroad  tickets;  but  country  people  are  born  humorists,  and 
genuine  humor  has  its  serious  side.  Charity  is  it?  No.  It  is  not 
charity  in  any  offensive  sense.  All  that  comes  my  way  out  of 
people's  good  will  is  the  old  fashioned  "Support  and  Main- 
tenance."   I  like  that  old  Puritan  term. 

Country  life  has  perils  for  the  minister.  The  peril  of  indo1- 
lence  is  ever  present.  Demands  upon  his  energies  may  be  light. 
Perils  of  introspection  may  follow.  Small  demands  leave  time 
for  brooding,  and  brooding  over  small  ills  is  likely  to'  hatch  out 
whole  broods  of  large  ills.  But  to<  the  man  of  resources  and 
self-reliance  the  country  pastorate  has  its  compensations.  Nature 
in  her  various  moods  is  ever  whispering  trust  and  confidence. 
The  genuine  life  and  character  of  the  people  he  associates  with 
encourage  a  philosophic  optimism.  Country  ministers  seldom 
become  pessimists.  Country  life  gives  time  for  reading,  study, 
reflection.  The  best  read  men,  the  most  thoughtful  men,  the  best 
informed  men,  in  science  and  philosophy,  in  Biblical  criticism 
and  in  up-to-date  theology  that  we  meet  outside  of  the  schools  in 
our  ministerial  associations  are  men  who  come  from  the  rural 
parishes ;  and  many  men  who  go  about  tell  me  that  they  hear  the 
best  preaching,  as  the  average  goes,  from  the  country  pulpits. 

And  the  country  minister  who  is  doing  anything  worth  while 
is  not  so  obscure  an  individual  as  he  sometimes  thinks  himself. 

28 


His  parish  is  all  the  time  growing  wider.  His  denomination 
knows  what  he  is  doing.  Summer  visitors  of  kindly  sympathies 
and  generous  dispositions  discover  him.  Personal  touch  with  the 
rising  generation  covers  the  earth  with  a  host  of  friends ;  and 
when  he  travels  he  need  pay  few  hotel  bills.  His  scattered  chil- 
dren have  a  welcome  for  him.  If  memory  hath  heavenly  treas- 
ures in  it,  who  has  laid  up  greater? 

A  generation  hence,  Boston  children  will  go  to  the  Public 
Library  to  find  out  who  Edward  Everett  Hale  and  Minot  J. 
Savage  were ;  but  no  child  of  Lancaster  or  of  Ashby  will  be  ask- 
ing who  George  M.  Bartol  and  George  S.  Shaw  were.  Their 
memories  are  stamped  upon  all  the  institutions  of  their  towns. 
Nobody  in  Bolton,  or  round  about,  ever  asks  who'  Isaac  Allen 
was,  though  he  died  sixty-six  years  ago.  None  of  these  country 
pastors  ever  did  anything  very  brilliant  or  famous,  except  to 
stay,  sixty  years,  forty  years,  forty- four  years ;  but  if  you  will 
compare  the  present  character  of  their  towns  with  some  that  have 
had  no  such  service  as  these  men  rendered  you  will  see  what  their 
patient  work  amounted  to. 


29 


INSTITUTE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 

The  following  is  the  prospectus  of  the  Institute  for  Religious 
Education,  Meadville,  Pennsylvania,  June  27  to  July  11,  1910:    • 

President  Rev.  F.  C.  Southworth 

Dean Rev.  Wmi.  I.  Lawrance 

Secretary Rev.  Henry  T.  Secrist 

Treasurer Rev.  W.  C.  Green 

Committee  from  Meadville  Conference:  Rev.  L.  W.  Mason, 
D.D.,  Rev.  Minot  O.  Simons,  Prof.  F.  C.  Doan,  Ph.D. 

The  Institute  has  been  arranged  in  accordance  with  a  vote 
of  the  Meadville  Conference.  The  Meadville  Theological  School 
and  the  Unitarian  Sunday  School  Society  co-operate  with  the 
churches  in  maintaining  it. 

It  will  be  held  for  two  weeks  at  Meadville,  Pa.,  beginning  on 
Monday,  June  27,  1910,  and  closing  on  Monday,  July  11.  Most 
of  the  sessions  will  be  held  at  the  Theological  School. 

THE  PROGRAM 

Service  will  be  held  in  the  Chapel  every  morning. 

Frank  C.  Doan,  Ph.D.,  professor  of  Systematic  Theology  and 
the  Philosophy  of  Religion  in  the  Meadville  Theological  School, 
will  give  a  course  of  lectures  on  "The  Religion  of  Childhood." 
In  connection  with  these  will  be  three  conferences  in  which  the 
lectures  of  Professor  Doan  will  be  discussed  in  relation  to  the 
boys  and  girls  as  we  know  them.  These  conferences  will  be 
led  by  Rev.  H.  T.  Secrist. 

Francis  A.  Christie,  D.D.,  professor  of  Church  History  and 
the  Theology  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  Theological  School, 
will  give  a  course  of  lectures  on  "The  Jesus  of  History." 

Rev.  Wm.  I.  Lawrance,  president  of  the  Unitarian  Sunday 
School  Society,  will  give  Readings  from  the  Prophets. 

A  series  of  lectures  on  the  kindergarten  and  on  work  for  the 
youngest  children  will  be  given  by  Miss  Sara  C.  Bullard,  of  Bos- 
ton, Mass.  Miss  Bullard  is  one  of  the  ablest  teachers  in  the  kin- 
dergartens of  the  public  schools  and  of  Unitarian  Sunday  Schools. 
She  will  give  material  for  direct  use  and  will  deal  with  her  sub- 
ject in  a  very  practical  way.     On  two  days  there  will  be  practice 

30 


